Farewell to Glossop's friendly watchmaker

Few people knew just how much the late Cliff Hales packed into his long life. 

To many, he was the friendly watchmaker they saw beavering away at his workbench in Glossop. 

But Cliff, who moved to Glossop in 1955 and was in business on High Street West, was an accomplished photographer, had a distinguished war service and could turn his hand to anything mechanical even until his ripe old age. 

But above all, he was well liked and respected by everyone who knew him and those probably ran into the thousands. 

Sadly, he died on 14 January at the age of 98. 

Cliff was born near Rochdale and grew up in the Portwood area of Stockport in the 1920s and 30s. 

As a teenager, he trained as a carpenter and when war broke out, he helped construct the wooden interiors of Stockport's air raid shelters built into the sandstone rock. 

A couple of years ago, he was able to check up on his handiwork on a visit to the shelters which are now a museum. 

Cliff signed up in 1941 as a radio operator with the Royal Signals, attached to the 1st Parachute Brigade and his initial service was in North Africa and Italy. 

In 1944, he was dropped by Parachute outside Arnhem and made it all the way to the infamous 'Bridge too Far' until he was captured in a ditch by the Germans. 

The fact that he was in a ditch was because the house he and his comrades had been holed up in next to the bridge was being systematically demolished by German tanks. 

Cliff remained a POW until the end of the war at a German work-camp in Dresden, where he witnessed at first hand the bombing of February 1945. 

He was very reluctant to talk about the carnage that was visited upon the civilian population there because his POW work-party had been forced to help in the clear-up operations. 

At the end of the war, as the American and Russian forces were sweeping across Germany, the guards at the prison camp just 'melted away' so he was free to escape. 

With a friend, Cliff walked and cycled his way nearly all the way out of Germany. He was finally liberated near the Czech border. Once rehabilitated, after the war he served in peace-keeping duties in Egypt and Palestine before a lengthy hospitalisation at a sanatorium near Grange-over-Sands to recover from tuberculosis. 

Cliff rarely talked about the war to friends and family, but received a great surprise a couple of years ago when two Dutchmen came over to Glossop to meet him and show him the helmet that he had worn at Arnhem, which was in their collection. 

It was dug up by a local woman from her vegetable patch on the outskirts of Arnhem town a few years ago. The two collectors had painstakingly tracked him down from Cliff's barely discernible service-number he had written on the lining of the helmet. 

After the war, Cliff underwent a traineeship as a watchmaker and set up shop on High Street West in 1955 (with living premises behind) and he remained there ever since. 

A year later, he got married to Doreen Evans, the sister of an army colleague. Wendy was born in 1960, swiftly followed by Chris just over a year later. 

Wearing his watchmaker's eyeglass and with a worktop randomly scattered with thousands of tiny watch parts, his trademark phrase was 'it'll be ready next week'. 

His shop was more of a social space for a chat than a profit-making concern. 

Tuesdays was closing day, and he would drive off every week to scour the watchmaker supply wholesalers in central Manchester. 

Cliff outside his shop in Glossop

Cliff was always fixing something - morning, day and night. Dinner hour was often spent patching up various cars that were used for family excursions every Sunday. Those same bangers also managed to convey the family to their annual holiday weeks in the likes of North Wales or Norfolk. 

He continued the tradition with his future son-in-law, enabling him to run cars that he would never have afforded otherwise. 

After he retired in 2001, he continued to tinker and at the age of 95 bought an industrial lathe and a Kawasaki motorbike. 

He constructed his own numerically-controlled cutting machine and back in the 1980s he got one of the very first home computers. 

Cliff always carried a camera as photography was a lifelong passion and, for a while, he expanded his business to include photographic products. 

He took photos of all kinds: landscapes, wildlife, studio portraits, local theatre productions, obscure corners of Glossop, special events and daily life. 

Two thousand of his photos have been scanned and can now be enjoyed on his website, which has had a quarter of a million views so far. 

He was a member of the local photographic societies and made many good friends. Cliff kitted out his attic as an extensive photographic darkroom and, after a day's work, his evenings were often spent developing and printing his images. 

Cliff coped admirably with living alone and independently for 30 years after the death of Doreen. He had a close relationship with his grandchildren Jim and Jo, and was always there for them as they grew up, right up until his passing. 

In his 80s, he was demonstrating to them how to do handstands and he took skateboarding lessons from Jim. Both grandchildren now have their own children and Cliff's longevity meant that he was able to enjoy a new role as a great-grandfather. 

Cliff has had a huge number of friends over the years and sadly, given his lifespan, many have sadly passed. 

The last few months saw a sharper decline in Cliff's health, although he could still whizz up and down the high street and even terrorise the aisles of B&M on his motorised buggy. 

Cliff's family want to thank two of his long-standing friends who continued to be by his side - Mike Fitt and Susan Cuthbert. 

If you wish to view Cliff's huge photographic collection and other mementoes of his life, you can visit his website at https://cliffordhales.wordpress.com 

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